A few days later, he brought me a bracelet with a vanilla orchid charm—my favorite. “I cut contact,” he said. “I forgot what matters.”

We both realized we’d grown distant. We weren’t connecting like we used to. Since then, we’ve started showing up for each other again—talking, walking, listening.

That bottle of shower gel forced us to face what we were avoiding: neglect.

Love isn’t in the big gestures. It’s in knowing, noticing, and never outsourcing the details.